A conventional technique used to fabricate an electronic integrated circuit device involves the use of photolithography. Initially, a positive or negative resist material is placed over a semiconductor wafer. A separable mask, conventionally made of metal glass, is created having a predetermined pattern formed thereon. Light is allowed to be passed through the mask and onto the wafer. The exposed resist, if positive, is then developed leaving a remaining pattern corresponding to the portions patterned by the mask. The wafer may then be etched and metallized to produce a patterned film.
Photoresist exposure steps typically require a difficult alignment of the glass mask with the wafer at smaller patterning widths. Also some opticl aberration also exists due to dispersion of light within the resist material. Others who use a flood exposure of light in the photolithographic process often use additional processing steps to accurately expose an entire wafer at the same time. For example, others have placed a contrast enhancement material over the substrate before exposure of the semiconductor device with light for the purpose of damping reflective and dispersive light. Therefore, it is readily apparent that processing at smaller pattern dimensions is increasingly difficult and expensive. A further problem encountered is the production of a mask having submicron patterns thereon. Because of the small dimensions involved, the manufacture of a mask with near micron or submicron patterns may be prohibitively expensive. As an example, stepping machines are typically used which align a single die in a wafer for light irradiation in a lithographic process. The stepping machines are not only expensive, but are also slower than flood irradiation techniques.